In Just 4 minutes, You Will Never See “Alternative Investments’ The Same Again…

Tyler Jordan
4 min readNov 23, 2024

(How to Fix a $25 Trillion Industry for $0)

I’m about to show you how George Mack, a 25 yr old British entrepreneur and one of my favorite thinking minds out there, put out a few tweets last year that truly rewired how I view the world and more importantly, business.

In just 4 minutes, I promise you will never see the industry of “alternative assets’ the same again.

Twitter: @george__mack

How?

It’s branding.

Well, I’d argue it’s not even that.

… it’s merely just changing the names of things.

At this point, you probably think George is insane, and if you think that, you definitely think I am insane for implying this is “life changing”… and you’re right, it’s ridiculous…. on the surface.

So let’s dig in and bring you on board the insane train 🚂

Here is George’s tweet that started it all for me

The last line mentioned there is what really changed everything for me.
“sometimes you don’t need any new tech. You just need branding that doesn’t bore people to death.”

I looked at all the things I do in my life and realised how BORING everything was on the surface and gave them all new names.

  • WorkingBusiness!
  • Exercising → Training!
  • Have toGet to!
  • FoodFuel!
  • Recording a PodcastSpeaking to my audience!
  • WritingUnravelling my best thoughts!
  • And so on…

These were all big changes, but the one that left me feeling like I had been Punched in the face by Mike Tyson in his prime, was..

…. “Alternative Investments”

How incredible boring, confusing and honestly, makes me feel a little skittish… like I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

When I hear the word alternative, I think of 2 things:

  1. This individual.

2. A second option.

If you identify as “alternative” or if you identify as “a second option”… awesome!
I don’t. Nor do I have any plans of doing so in the future.

… I also don’t imagine that real estate, hedge funds and private equity got together for a dinner one night and all decided to label themselves as such either. (I could be wrong…)

Problem: Alternative investments makes 0 sense and have no relevance to the viewer.
Solution: Call them what they are.

I put a poll out a few weeks back on this and the results are pretty clear. 88% of the voters think that a name change is due and it should be something that represents that alternatives are assets that are PHYSICAL in some way, shape or form.

Personally, I am on the “Hard Asset Investments” bandwagon.
(note: I understand hard assets do not cover the full spectrum of alts… but this is my article and I make the rules)

When I read it, and particularly when I say it out loud, I feel powerful, strong, as if the thing I am talking about is unbreakable, that it’s stood the test of time.

THAT’S WHAT ALTERNATIVES ARE!!!

They are THE ORIGINAL assets…. we were trading wines and real estate long before we were trading stocks and bonds. We were putting our money into infrastructure and business hundreds of years before the term “Exchange Traded Fund” even existed.

Ok, let’s wrap this up, I’m bordering on my 5 minute promise now…. but promise me you will stop using the word “Alternatives” when describing hard assets?

As Always, BE GREAT!
Tyler Jordan

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably of the same mind that I am and I’d love to hear your thoughts!
- See the post about this article HERE
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Tyler Jordan
Tyler Jordan

Written by Tyler Jordan

Managing Partner of The Nova Haus, a 506(c) fund offering investors international exposure to the luxury real estate market.

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